My roommate works a job that has early/overnight shifts, like 1-4 AM, 4-7 AM, and 7-9 AM. I’m a super light sleeper and have a hard time falling asleep, so I wake up multiple times throughout the night because of this: when her alarm goes off to wake up, then I’m up for another half an hour while she gets ready to leave, and then again when she comes back in. And then it takes me a while to fall back asleep. I’ve been exhausted (because I’m sure being woken multiple times throughout the night can’t be good for you), irritable, and just generally miserable because of it. It’s not like she’s especially loud (although obviously her alarm is), so I can’t really fault her here, but is there anything I can do to keep my sanity for the rest of the year?
You can get a different roommate for second semester. It’s unreasonable to ask her to quit her job…and your light sleep issue will probably not resolve. There are bed-shakers that can be purchased to wake people up instead of auditory alarms. Maybe buy her one and see if it helps? If not…find a new room mate.
Agreed, tough situation. I’m also a light sleeper and a schedule like that would definitely be an issue for me as well. I’d start looking for another roommate as soon as you can.
She seems to be being as reasonable as possible. So I would not suggest talking to the RA. But I would suggest talking to the housing office…say that your roommate has to work over night and her alarm clock goes off at 1am, or 4 am (don’t mention 7am because that is reasonable) and you can’t get back to sleep…and you need to change rooms.
Have you tried earplugs and an eye mask? Those might be a temporary solution.
Would your roommate be able to switch to something like a Fitbit with a vibrating wrist alarm? She’d still be getting up early but at least not to a loud noise.
Agree that a room change may be necessary. You can talk to the RA and find out the procedure to do requesting a room switch or you can go to ResLife directly. If you do switch rooms let your roommate know it is not personal but that her job hours are interfering with your sleep. In the meantime things like a white noise machine by your bed, an eye mask, earplugs may help.
@AroundHere has a really good idea. It sucks, because you both have a right to be doing your respective things.
Someone had a similar problem on here. I suggested sleep medicine, but it’s not good for you because you’ll always have to rely on it all the time since it’s a medication.
The best thing for you is to switch roommates, or if you can’t switch for some reason, then sign up for classes later in the day, (or evening classes), so you can have an easier sleep schedule. You can also stay up late and sleep according to her schedule to the best of your ability. You can also nap during the daytime to catch up on your sleep. But, it most likely wouldn’t ever get this far, but you never know…
One of my friends last year stayed up really late to study and do his work. He did get some sleep, but he probably went to bed around 4-5 am, went to class, and then took a nap during the daytime to catch up on his sleep. Now, this wasn’t an everyday thing, but it was an interesting sleep schedule to say the least.
Another idea to cope with this situation would be to ask your roommate to have all of her stuff set out the night before. She could pick her outfit out, get her shower stuff together, make up ready to go, set out a granola bar for breakfast, etc. When she wakes up, all she has to do is grab her stuff, get ready in the restroom, and quietly return her PJs or whatever else to the room before she leaves. I think that would be a very fair compromise. Would be great if she could do this on top of getting one of those vibrating alarms mentioned above and you trying ear plugs and a sleep mask.